Page 131 of Gilded Wicked Mirrors
“Emrys,” Quinn breathed, her eyes begging him to stop, but he remained uncharacteristically silent.
“Retrieve my paintings, Quinny.” Jevon’s eyes tore to the mirror. “I’m a bit of a collector.”
Emrys jerked at the words, his eyes a liquid inferno. The vein in his jaw pulsing from holding it too tightly. “No.”
“Quiet, Princeling.” Jevon waved the mirror.
A vile sickness rose in Quinn’s esophagus. “Why?”
“Because I can,” he said. “Now, get my paintings, or Emrys will kill pretty Giselle.”
Giselle stood still, her nostrils flaring. She was unable to talk because the knife was so tight against her skin.
“Stop this,” Quinn said. “We’re your friends. We love you.” Her voice broke.
“Are we?” Jevon asked, walking over to Emrys. Jevon roughly gripped Giselle’s chin and tilted her head closer to the blade, drawing blood with the action. Emrys visibly swallowed but did nothing.
Ash burned in Quinn’s blood. Teagan stiffened, an unreadable expression on her face.
“Careful.” He clicked his tongue. “We could kill her in a second. Humans are such fragile creatures.”
Was he not human, then? Was he a vampire?
He kissed Giselle’s neck and laced his fingers into her hair, pulling her neck backward and out of Emrys’s grip.
“If you would, Emrys?” Jevon held out his hand for the knife, but the prince hesitated before handing it over.
During the exchange, Giselle shifted. Then she turned sharply and kneed Jevon in the jewels. He howled and fell to the ground, his scream a dark promise.
Giselle dashed away, but Teagan blocked the way and punched her in the face. “He will kill us all, girl.” Teagan shook out her fist as Emrys grabbed Giselle by the shoulders.
“I’m sorry,” the prince whispered. “I can’t have him kill my entire family.”
Jevon sat up, holding his core, his fingers circling around the mirror, and hissed, “You’re going to regret that.” After a moment, he stood, gripping the knife tightly. He raked it down Giselle’sface, and blood pooled in a river down her chest. “Try to escape again, and I’ll put it through your heart.”
Giselle gritted her teeth and held her head high despite the blood still pouring from her wound.
Jevon licked some of it off her cheek. “I wonder if it tastes different to a vampire,” he said. “A question for a different day. Get my paintings, Quinny.”
Quinn’s eyes shifted to the vampires, sending a silent plea for help.
“Oh, they won’t help you.” Jevon’s mouth curved with fiendish delight. “I control them. I could make your pretty prince slit his own throat if I wanted to.”
She turned back to the mirror, her veins on fire, and her intestines twisted into knots. There was no time to waste, so she inhaled sharply and darted to the surface—
“No!” Emrys’s cry was suffocated by the consistency of the mirror.
As Quinn stepped deeper within the barrier, she glanced down at her arm, and magically, her tattoo returned as if the magic that affected the ruins held no sway here.
This mirror felt different than Periwinkle. It felt like flower petals brushing along her skin. Smooth, soft, and calming. Like a relaxing bath or a sweet garden. But it was also wet like rain. When a drop landed on the center of Quinn’s palm, it was red and thick.
Blood.
Forty-Four
Blood gushed from the sky, oozing down her face, and covering her body in crimson. Quinn pinched her eyes tight. As she stepped fully into the mirror, the blood rain ceased, but it still clung to her dress, hair, and skin. She cleared her eyes with her palms, and a woman stood at the center of a deep crimson room. Red from the floor to the ceiling with blood crying from the walls.
The mirror’s face and arms were shaped out of puzzle pieces, and her hair was sculpted from white flower petals. The petals from magnolias and roses draped past sharp cheekbones, full lips, and a chiseled jawline. The bodice of her gown was formed out of angel feathers. Blood dripped from both the petals and the feathers down her body like wet watercolor paint. Porcelain butterfly wings stretched from her back like a carved statue. Her scarlet, glowing eyes repeatedly blinked like a doll, and red smoke tendrils slithered from them. Blood dripped from her mouth, and she licked her lips as if savoring the taste. It was like a vampire, and an abstract painting melded and created a new creature altogether.
